10.24.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




"Space shuttle Endeavour's final journey was a 12-mile ride from LAX, through Inglewood, to the California Science Center in Exposition Park. Here it is in time lapse." Which was really cool.

  • This is awful, and isn't getting near enough press from the weekend skeleton news crews.

    • The shooter entered the hospital on Saturday morning, went to the maternity wing, struck his girlfriend who was there to deliver a baby in the head with a handgun, and then shot two workers dead who had come into the room to help. 
    • The workers were probably nurses, but we don't know for sure -- the hospital has basically gone into a communications lock-down. Something is going on, and I'm guessing they are scared of being sued (and Fox 4 had a story last night about how employees have complained about security for years.)
    • And the shooter is a poster child for guys who need to be locked up.
      • He had been to prison once before on a two year sentence for robbing a guy he had met in a convenience store.
      • And he went back to prison on an eight year sentence for robbing a woman as she walked into her apartment, leaving her duct taped in her bathroom. 

      • And his picture is like he had been cast for the role for a TV movie. 

    • And this shooting will cause all sorts of knee-jerk reactions about "law changes." Hey, his second crime was a first degree felony (5 years to life) where he was subject to serving 1/2 of his sentence by law.  He got 8 years so he got out in 4. If he had gotten 40, he would have had to have served 20.  The problem isn't with the laws, it's that his case gets lumped in an avalanche of penny-ante crimes that shouldn't be felonies to begin with. 
    • He also had an ankle monitor as a condition of parole. Almost all parolee's don't have an ankle monitor, and the fact that he had one tells you that TDC considered him high risk.  
  • The Runaway Bay cluster of dumping raw sewage into Lake Bridgeport is finally getting some metroplex press -- although this was page 23A of the Star-Telegram. This problem has been developing for years but . . . 


  • DPS finally fired a trooper in connection with Uvalde. But it was quietly done on Friday in a late day news dump.

    • Remember that the $300,000 Man said he would resign under these circumstances. 

  • This is a weird story.  The dad thinks people are "after him" so he disappeared with his wife and two autistic sons. The family hadn't been heard from in a week until they surfaced over the weekend. They left behind an elderly family member they were "taking care of" and "was found [last] Monday walking the neighborhood."

  • More trouble for the Clay County sheriff.

  • Trump was in Texas on Saturday. Remember a couple of months ago I mentioned how the Nazis began to make a martyr out of the date of Hitler's first coup attempt? And how I said we need to watch and see if ultra-MAGA did the same thing over January 6th? We didn't have to wait long. Video.

    • Related: On Friday in the trial of the leader of the Oath Keepers, we learned that the Brown Shirts were coordinating with each other.


  • The El Paso DA is probably in over her head, but you never -- I mean never -- ask for the Texas AG's office to help you in a criminal prosecution because they will screw it up. They aren't in the business of prosecuting. And they'll send in Austin lawyers who are bad at it while all the while being oblivious to the nature and customs of the jurisdiction they've walked into. She actually lucked out here.

  • How strangely worded is this from the Wall Street Journal? Ordered? Who would have known that you can't always trust an illegal drug courier. 

  • The wildest thing out of the college football weekend is that four snaps sailed over the punter for Weber State's head and all four resulted in safeties. I didn't think that's possible. All four quick loading videos are here.

  • The Cowboys had a 52 yard punt return to the Lion's 42 yards and then -- had to punt after not getting a first down.  That's hard to do. 

at 8:30 AM

10.21.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




It was the great Kountze, Texas cheerleaders Bible verse controversy of 2012. The case went on to the Texas Supreme Court on a procedural issue (mootness and standing) where the cheerleaders won, but after that everyone seems to have lost interest. The last court ruling I can find is just an appellate court referring it back to the trial court for further proceedings. 

  • The greatest 44 days of work as Prime Minister ever.

     
  • I saw this story out of  Mississippi last week but finally tracked down and watched the video yesterday. It's about a million times worse that I imagined. In fact, it's horrifying. And I don't know how the parents didn't go all vigilante on the daycare workers after they saw it. 

  • A new and respected UT poll for Texas politics was released this morning. Nothing will ever change. Range of error is +/-3.3%
    • Governor:

    • Lt. Governor:

    • And, incredibly, Attorney General:

  • A local headline out of Wichita Falls I saw yesterday which seems to be worthy of more, if not national, attention.

  • A random press release which confused me. I Googled the place to see if it actually was in Bridgeport, and it came back to an address in the strip center by the new Scooter's coffee shop. 

  • A reminder that Runaway Bay is dumping raw sewage into Lake Bridgeport and the city doesn't plan to do anything about it unless others pay for it: 

  • All of this would have been so much easier if DPS would just have come clean about their screw-ups from Uvalde from the start. Story.

  • Steve Bannon is scheduled to be sentenced this morning for defying a subpoena to testify before Congress about the January 6th Trump Insurrection. He was convicted earlier this year.  The Justice Department wants six months. He wants probation. And he was fired up this morning:

  • I'm surprised that #2 is still Southern Baptist. I thought they it was independent. Story.

  • I've long said that school vouchers are nothing more than a ruse to use taxpayer money to fund private religious schools. Now Texas Monthly has a new article on how it would go down, and how it is trying to be implemented behind the scenes. It's money laundering:

  • Legal nerdy stuff that I don't understand which I'm posting because isn't really legal nerdy stuff: This footnote from a civil case decided yesterday by the Fort Worth Court of Appeals in Stedfast Baptist Church v. Fellowship of the Sword, Inc.:

  • I love this image from the NFL game last night. The guy in the background is starting a backflip as he completes his TD via interception. Andy Dalton, who threw it, is in the foreground. Video of the play.

  • Northwest ISD football was committing a crime last night. 

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 108 days.
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM

10.20.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Messenger headlines seemed noteworthy.

  • Britain just got rid of Boris Johnson and now they may boot out the new prime minister who has just been on the job for a couple of months.  I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but every story I see says that things have come to a head after "a vote in Parliament regarding fracking descended into chaos."  Last Second Edit: She just resigned. 


  • News on Tonya Couch, the mother of the "Affluenza Teen." And the news involves a delay.  The State, in an effort to come up with something substantial to charge her with, chose "money laundering" of all things.  But her attorneys, in a brilliant move, found a creative way to challenge those charges before trial by using a free speech defense.  By doing so, they got to appeal immediately when their attempt to dismiss the charges was denied. Because of that, the case has been floating around in appellate orbit for years. And yesterday the highest Texas criminal court agreed to hear the case which will cause even further delay. (And get this: They aren't even deciding whether the case should be dismissed. They are only deciding whether Couch has the right to appeal before there is a verdict. This may never end.)

  • I proclaimed last week that Herschel Walker might be the dumbest man in America. I'm rethinking that.

  • You want to know one crazy conspiracy theory that I hold? I think the story below -- which is making the news this morning -- is an absolute lie made up by law enforcement.  In this case, every single news report about these 12,000 pills are all based solely only on this press release from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office. And every news report just regurgitates that press release with no confirmation or investigation. The release says the discovery was made at "around 7:30 a.m." at a security check point, but that the "suspect" fled but was "identified." But, mysteriously, no names whatsoever are given and no arrest was been made.  And you know what's really weird? The Los Angeles Sheriff's Office doesn't have primary jurisdiction over LAX. That airport, like DFW, has it's own police department. And the photos have all the makings of a PR stunt capitalizing on the silliness of fentanyl and Halloween candy. 

  • We are some numb to it that this big story yesterday doesn't even move the needle any longer.

  • Control of the Senate will come down to these races. Right now, if these polls are correct, there will be no change to the current 50-50 split. But I suspect they won't fall this way. 

  • This is a wild story out of Florida. 

  • Texas AG Commissioner Sid Miller's Instagram going into the home stretch. But I really don't think he's kidding if he had the power. 

  • Every story seems to just say he was found "at church" with no other explanation. It normally only means one thing when the cause of death seems to have intentionally been made vague.

  • Dallas Mavericks (0-1) stories will now beat me down, but I hear that Luca Doncic missed a game winning shot last night. 

at 8:31 AM
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